What are the potential benefits of storing information in a session variable before updating a counter in PHP?

When updating a counter in PHP, it is important to store the counter value in a session variable to ensure that the count persists across different page loads. This allows the counter to increment accurately and consistently for each user session. By storing the counter in a session variable, you can easily retrieve and update the count without losing its value.

<?php
session_start();

// Check if counter exists in session, if not, initialize it to 0
if (!isset($_SESSION['counter'])) {
    $_SESSION['counter'] = 0;
}

// Increment the counter
$_SESSION['counter']++;

// Display the updated counter value
echo "Counter: " . $_SESSION['counter'];
?>